Subjective dimensions of patient competence: relationships with selected healthcare usage behaviors and general features of self-rated competence.

OBJECTIVE: To introduce the concept of patient competence and provide additional information on the concurrent validity of a new self-rating measure of patient competence in the context of cancer employing healthcare usage behaviors and more general self-rated features of patient competence as criteria.

METHODS: Based on a multi-center sample of n=536 patients with cancer, bivariate correlations and multiple regressions were computed.

RESULTS: The competence subscale of striving for autonomous decisions emerged as significant, albeit weak predictor of having used professional psycho-social support (r=.31, beta=.28) and employing other complementary medicines (r=.28; B=.65) in relation to one's cancer. Problem-focused and emotion-focused competencies relate differently to different general features of self-rated competence like feeling informed and assertive or adapting well.

CONCLUSION: Additional support for the concurrent validity of the new self-rating measure of patient competence in the context of cancer has been found. Viewed in perspective, this measure may therefore provide a methodological basis to examine determinants and health effects of patient competence empirically. Nevertheless, further research on the conceptualization and measurement of patient competence appears necessary.

PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS: Having available measures of patients' specific competencies in the context of cancer will help identify their strength and weaknesses in dealing with life-threatening disease and enhance their coping resources.